The Art of the Life-Model at Leeds Art Gallery- pedagogic and performative strategies in community...

The Art of the Life-Model

at Leeds Art Gallery

Pedagogic and performative strategies

in community arts education


•Community Arts ‘drop-in’ at Leeds Arts Gallery•Free-of-charge, welcomes all ages, backgrounds and abilities•Explores the role of the life-model in Western and non-Western art •Uses Gallery’s permanent collections also touring exhibitions•Model-led mixed art activities – centrally drama, life-drawing and art history. Over the years developed towards 3D making and performance art in the gallery spaces.•Brought over 1,000 visitors into Gallery since 2002

(c) Nina Kane, March 2010

The Lady of Shalott, 2002


(c) Nina Kane, 2002, 2007

Session example



(c) Nina Kane, 2002, 2007

Students weave a web, draw the reflection of the room in a mirror and read the books and resources.Lady Of Shalott, JW Waterhouse 1896, Leeds City Galleries



‘The Lady of Shalott’ : example of a session.1. Drama exercises in group and pairs – ‘guiding’.2. Small group work – travelling through the room with

mirrors.3. Read Tennyson’s poem as a group. Discuss (handout).4. Look at Waterhouse’s 1896 painting in the gallery

space. Discuss (handout).5. Working in 3s, the group build a ‘web’ between them

in the Education studio – 1 holds the ball of wool, 2 weaves a web moving in and out of other students and tying the ends round stools and other fixed points, 3 draws the process from the edges of the room using a mirror to view.

6. Model-tutor reconstructs the pose from Tennyson’s picture within the web for an hour whilst students draw. ‘Stepping into the picture, looking behind the figure’).

Research materials and resources in the room for students’ own interest and ‘differentiated learning’ opportunities.

(c) Nina Kane, 2002, 2010

Central Practices and Ideas


•Life-modelling and life-drawing are interdependent activities. Activities involve model and artist(s) in dynamic creative exchange.•Explore the conventions, histories and working practices of the model in the development of contemporary life-modelling theory.•‘Stepping into the picture’. Use of the gallery collections and touring exhibitions to instigate ‘double-readings’ of figurative works. 1. Intuit and observe the imaginative function of the figure in artwork through drama-informed modelling practice, discussion - instinctive and creative reflection on the making processes through looking and reconstruction / refiguring. 2. Art-historical investigation of the artwork’s composition, material processes, symbology, making processes, theoretical and curatorial premises through looking, discussion and research.




•Drama –into-Drawing: Life-modelling is on a performance spectrum. Life-drawing is primarily concerned with materials and objects. The interdependency of our shared image-making involves us in ‘drama’ (a ‘being’ together) and in tensions of looking (a ‘theatre’). Life-drawings represent a time and space-durational document of this struggle. The model carries the memory of these acts in her/his body from session to session.•Community focused. Use of the gallery as a public resource to be shared by all. Materials, books, other resources provided, open and friendly welcome. Student’s choice on how / when participate.•Encouragement of sharing of knowledge, ideas, opinions, observations and instincts about art between students. Political and social opinions on the works, the gallery, the life-modelling /life-drawing practices debated and explored. Development of ipsative learning and andragogy, along with the valuing of life experiences and prior learning.




•Intervention in practices of life-modelling / life-drawing exchange and an exploration of conventions of life-drawing practice. What should we carry with us into the C21st life-drawing /modelling space and why, how? Interventionist uses of space within life-drawing room and in gallery. Model-tutor structuring of space /time. •That there remains a potential for gender, class and creative oppression within life-drawing, though this is not inevitable.•Focus on the life-drawer and their choices – forum theatre, reflection, discussion, challenge of the 3-tier hierarchy of life-drawing: Tutor-Artist(s) –Model. Adorno’s ‘Authoritarian Personality’.


Conventions . . .


Life-modelling theory developed through The Art of the Life-Model and related modelling projects – WILMA (Women Into Life-Modelling Arts), Cast-Off Drama, and collaborations.

Spider diagrams – Conventions.....


Life-Modelling Theories


Life-modelling theory developed through:

-The Art of the Life-Model -WILMA (Women Into Life-Modelling

Arts)- Cast-Off Drama, and

collaborationsKey focuses – see Spider diagrams in ‘Embodying the Other’:Conventions of the Life-Drawing SpaceCommon Ways Into Pose-negotiation and SettingHistories of the Life-ModelAttitudes of the Life-Drawing Group?


There is no handbook of life-modelling...


•Attitudes of the life-drawing group ... ? DISCUSS . . .•

•The life-model should be seen and not heard•The life-model can teach us nothing about art.•The life-model should nurture the artist.•A muse should be amusing. •The life-model is the property of the artist. •Clothed life-models are a disappointment. Nude life-models are up for anything. •Good life-models can do any position. Bad life-models break without permission. •A muse should be a-musing.•There is no real difference between a life-model and a bowl of fruit. •Time is immaterial. Good life-models do not count the time. •Life-models should never claim the artists' work as their own. (c) Nina Kane, March

2010

Experiments in Form / Drama-Into Drawing (2004 – 6)


‘Inheritance’ Project (with Cast-Off Drama) – photos of Inheritance in 2007 International

Women’s Day.


Experiments in Form / Drama-Into Drawing (2004 – 6)


‘Inheritance’ Project (with Cast-Off Drama) – photos of ‘Eve’s Apples’ session.


Paula Rego, The Artist in Her Studio

History of The Art of the Life-Model


•2001: Community, Feminist, Theatre, WILMA – ‘Will You, Won’t You...Join the Dance?’(2002), Cast-Off Drama. Female life-models.•2002 – 2008: Community Education course through Leeds College of Art & Design and Leeds Art Gallery Education, devised and delivered by Nina Kane. Built through local life-drawing arenas.•2004: 30-week ‘drop-in’ course. Range of student benefits, minimal administration – LSC regeneration and ACL, LCC – ‘postcode’. Students attending from as far away as Whitby, Sheffield, Harrogate, York, Manchester.•2005: Leeds – Devon Exchange with Jeremy Holloway, Dartington College; ‘Situation Leeds Festival’ – Raphaelle de Groot, Canada.




•2006 – 7: Gallery closed for refurbishment. Course moves to Space@Bracken Edge (term 1), and Leeds College of Art, (2 and 3).•Change of Community Education management / ACL funding. Course moves to 10-week modular structure with regular student group. Over-19s only. Heavy administration processes implemented.•Change on modelling policy within college – lecturers ‘banned’ from modelling; change of tutor role, increase in guest model teaching of session in collaboration with tutor.•Dec 2007: Damning report from an ACL inspector recommending instant shut-down. Students protest. Community Education management query the report, request second observation. ACL inspect again, praise it highly, award a ‘2’ (good) with some ‘1’ (outstanding) elements. Creative uses of ‘silence’.•July 2008: ACL withdraws funding. Leeds College of Art axes all life-drawing from its curriculum, including Art of the Life-Model and gives notice to models.




•2008 – 2009: The Art of the Life-Model moves back to Cast-Off Drama in partnership with Leeds Art Gallery Education. ‘Drop-in’ status and ‘model-as-facilitator’ practice resumed. Course develops a strong community following, averaging 16 participants per session. Runs on voluntary donation.•Sept 2008: Art of the Life-Model Exhibitions Group forms independent of Cast-Off and Gallery, hosts first exhibition at Swarthmore Centre, Leeds. •2008-9: Strong independent programme at Gallery – ‘Performance Art & the Model’, ‘The Model as Patron of Art’, ‘The Model and Technology in the C21st ’.•Sept 2009: Second independently-run Exhibition at Leeds Central Library.•2009 – 2010: The Green Children of Wolfpit. Moves towards forming group with independent community-run status.


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